Removable display hooks are widely used in connection with merchandise display. Most typically, such hooks are utilized in connection with perforated panel board, which is provided with a series of uniformly spaced apertures arranged to receive pairs of lugs provided on a mounting bracket for the display hook. The prior art in connection with such hooks is, in general, very well developed, and many varieties thereof are commercially available on the market. In general, such display hooks are convenient and efficient for the setting up of racks and panels for the display of carded and bagged merchandise.
Frequently, manufacturers and jobbers of consumer products prefer to furnish complete, prearranged display assemblies to their retail customers, to simplify and encourage the prominent display of the merchandise in the retailer's store. A highly effective procedure for this purpose is to furnish the retailer with a complete display assembly, including the merchandise, the display rack and the display hooks. Moreover, the manufacturer or jobber achieves greatest benefit if the display panels are preassembled with the display hooks, which not only avoids the necessity of that assembly having to be done on the floor by the retailer, but also assures that the merchandise hooks will be placed most advantageously in the display. Despite the many advantages of such a merchandising policy, the use thereof has been inhibited by the expenses associated therewith. Thus, in one widely used form of preassembled dispaly rack, display panels are formed of wire, and the merchandise hooks are welded to the wire panel frame. These have proven to involve excessively high shipping costs, because of inherent high bulk and also because of the cost occasioned by damage during shipment, or protection against such damage, or both. For example, even where the individual panels of a display assembly are disassembled for shipment, the welded-on merchandise hooks project substantially from the plane of the panel, frequently up to 12 inches. This makes the panels very bulky to ship, resulting in high penalties in shipping rates, because of low weight-to-volume ratios. Moreover, the extended merchandise hooks tend to be easily damaged during shipment, unless expensive packing is provided for protection.
Equally difficult problems arise when using display assemblies in which the display panels are formed of perforated sheets of hardboard, metal or plastic. For such displays, although it is highly desirable to ship the display panels with the merchandise hooks prepositioned in predetermined locations, there has not been available to the trade an inexpensive, practical merchandise hook which could be relied upon to stay in place during the transit. Moreover, assuming that the hook could be retained in position, the above mentioned problems of excessive bulk to rate and concern with damage in transit tends to greatly inhibit the extent of utilization of this otherwise desirable merchandising policy.
Pursuant to the invention, a novel and improved form of merchandise hook is provided, which is suitable for mounting either as a permanent part of the merchandise display or for removable attachment to a perforated panel type of display and which obviates the various disadvantages mentioned above. Moreover, in addition to the outstanding advantages of the device of the invention used in connection with prearranged and preassembled display racks, the device of the invention can be used to great advantage for general application in other, more conventional types of merchandise display.
In accordance with a specific aspect of the invention, a merchandise display hook assembly is provided which includes a base member adapted for mounting to a display rack or panel, either permanently or removably as desired. A merchandise hook is pivotally mounted on the base member for movement between either of two stable positions, a display position in which the hook is rigidly supported in an outwardly extending attitude, and a retracted position, in which the display hook is pivoted upward to lie flat against the panel or rack, upon which it is supported. As a significant aspect of the invention, the construction of the respective parts, the base member and merchandise hook member, is such as to provide an automatic detent interaction, such that the hook tends to be stable in either of its primary positions, but can be easily moved from one to the other.
In its most advantageous form, the display hook assembly of the invention includes a merchandise support hook constructed of a generally U-shaped wire, the ends of which are bent to form pivot shafts. These pivot shafts are received in axially aligned openings in the mounting bracket, to provide for the desired pivotable mounting of the merchandise hook. The mounting bracket itself is formed with laterally deflected cam surface areas, which serve to yieldably displace the legs of the U-shaped merchandise hanger when the hanger is pivoted from either of its stable positions. Because of the yieldable displacement involved in pivotable movement, the merchandise hanger tends to resist movement out of either of its stable positions, but that resistance can be readily overcome by manually pushing or pulling the hanger in one direction or the other.
In accordance with another specific aspect of the invention, a novel merchandise display hook assembly is provided having the features and advantages described above which, in addition, is so designed that the merchandise hanger, when pivoted to its retracted position, is constantly yieldably urged against the rack or panel on which it is mounted. In the case of display hook assemblies mounted on perforated panel board displays, this feature has the important functional advantage of maintaining a constant pressure on the mounting bracket. As a result, when the premounted unit is in transit, any tendency for the display hook assembly to become dislodged is effectively resisted by the constant yieldable pressure maintained on the bracket, which is retained throughout the shipping mode and until the unit is pivoted downward for application thereto of the display merchandise.
Low cost being a highly significant aspect of any display hook assembly of the type contemplated, it is a further aspect of the invention to provide a hook having all of the above mentioned features and advantages which, at the same time, may be produced in large volume at an extremely low cost level. To this end, the new display hook in its most advantageous form is comprised of two simple parts, a stamped, sheet metal base member and a formed wire hanger. The individual components may be manufactured by the most elementary production procedures, and both parts can be easily and inexpensively plated or coated if desired. In addition, a single base member stamping may be utilized to accommodate a wide variety of sizes and forms of merchandise hook.